ALLENTOWN, Pa. – When we send kids off to college, many times we say they need to “find themselves” but researchers and authors say some of us spend a lifetime trying to find out who we really are. It’s called the search for our authentic selves. It sounds easy enough right? We know who we are don’t we? But some researchers say our true selves can sometimes get buried under the to do lists and the different roles we play in our busy lives and we have to really dial in. We asked Lehigh Valley women for their reflections in our Wisdom Wednesday segment.
Core benefits of health insurance, 401k, sick time still rule
By Melinda Rizzo, May 22, 2017 at 8:00 AM
While company perks and tasty treats may bring a ray of sunshine to an ordinary workday, core employment benefits such as excellent health insurance, 401k plans and paid time off continue to reign as the benefits employees value most.
According to a Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey, employees ranked health care insurance as the leading benefit they would prefer over a pay raise.
Health insurance came in at 40 percent, followed by vacation or paid time off at 37 percent, performance bonus at 35 percent, paid sick time at 32 percent, 401k retirement plan at 31 percent and flex time or scheduling at 30 percent.
“Good health care plan for the employee, solid health care for their family members, flexible vacation time, the ability to work remotely and 401k,” noted Lindsay Watson, vice president of client relations for FIA NYC Employment Services in Allentown.
She said those core benefits remain a top priority across all age groups and are valued most by employees and job applicants.
With workers’ ages spanning not only decades but generations – and all other things being equal, such as salary, commuting distance and opportunities for career advancement – coveted benefits may tip the scales in attracting, hiring and retention trends.
“There will always be generations of workers who need benefits and security,” Watson said. “Core benefits will always be valuable.”
VIRTUAL WORKPLACE
Steadily climbing the ranks across all worker demographics are flexible work time and work-from-home policies that allow caring for youngsters, elderly or ill family members – or even the power to have more control over how the work day is arranged or work is accomplished.
“Employees want flexibility and autonomy to work from home. The virtual workplace has become very popular, especially among millennials in the tech world,” said Sandra Soliman, financial recruiting manager at Thrivent Financial in Allentown. Thrivent is a not-for-profit financial services organization with headquarters in Minneapolis.
Some intangibles also are emerging as important, especially among younger generations.
“Employees want to belong to an organization that gives them purpose and fulfillment,” Soliman said. “Getting out of bed purely for the dollar is not as enticing as it once was.”
IMPACT OF MILLENNIALS
Flexible work schedules and work-from-home arrangements are especially popular among all age groups, but rise to the top among millennials.
Millennials, generally those born between 1977 and 2000, have driven a number of changes in company benefits, according to Jenny Padgett, human resources coordinator of Kwik Goal Ltd., Richland Township. Kwik Goal makes movable outdoor sports equipment and goals for the soccer industry.
“Millennials need the ‘great job’ pat-on-the-back a lot,” she said. “They are used to a lot of feedback, and when you give them that [attention], they stick around.”
Padgett said millennials are harder to attract because they’re often on the move.
BOOMERS AND HEALTH CARE
Padgett noted Generation X, or those born between 1966 and 1984, value 401k employer contributions, profit sharing and generous paid-time-off policies.
Baby boomers or those born between 1945-1965, hands down, are looking for great health insurance.
Company paid health care equals peace of mind and “feeling taken care of,” an important quality to this age group, according to Watson.
Generation Z, or those born after the mid-1990s to 2000 who are just entering the workforce, are looking for recognition and a focus to their work, Padgett said.
INVESTED IN THEIR WORK
Soliman said overall, employees want to be invested at and in their workplaces.
“When your most passionate employees grow silent, you have a big problem on your hands,” she said.
Being taken seriously and seen as adding value to an organization are important to job seekers, too.
“Employees want be entrepreneurial about their position,” Soliman said. “They want to serve their community and [they] want to make a difference, all while satisfying what’s asked of them.”
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Can you change your life by changing your thoughts? Study after study says you absolutely can if you use positive thinking and while most of the women we spoke with agree, they also say negative thoughts can have a big influence on how we feel and our levels of success.
Life Lessons: Wisdom Wednesday: The power of positive thinking
In Life Lessons today, WFMZ’s Nancy Werteen is beginning another round of her periodic Wisdom Wednesday series .
“When looking to close the loop on hard-to-fill jobs, we rely on our team to tap into our candidate networks to uncover talent that isn’t actively on the market. While the technologies that we use are helpful, we find that candidates are willing to make a phone call to help someone in their network find a role that they may not have been aware of otherwise.” Lindsay Watson, Vice President, Client Relations, FIA NYC Employment Services
Use existing staff, low-cost resources to find right hires
Regardless of the job description, finding and hiring the right staff is an inexact science.
A subtle cocktail of soft and hard skills, company culture, values, expectations and a candidate’s suitability also could be affected by the short- and long-term goals of those across the interview table. In many ways, it’s a spin of the roulette wheel.
But it doesn’t have to be that way – even when resources are limited and budgets are tight. Because finding the right candidate for the job in the long run saves time and money and potentially even improves productivity.
There is no magic bullet for how to get there, but there is a road map.
Small-business owners, employment companies and consultants said word-of-mouth, advice from existing employees, mining trade schools and using social media and job message boards help to find candidates.
The next steps include screening resumes for skill sets, spelling and grammar, using an initial short phone-interview to weed out applicants, and, during the in-person interview, using a checklist, judging for reliability and loyalty and reading a candidate’s body language and confidence to help determine his or her potential fit for your business.
In addition, hiring is an opportunity to revamp a particular position’s job duties to better fit the business and marketplace.
“Small businesses and startups [need to] look at how they hire, and plan for future growth,” said Lindsay Watson, co-founder of FIA NYC LLC, an employment services company based in Allentown.
In-house networking with existing staff or contacts is a valuable and often overlooked place to begin searching for new employees, Watson said.
She said tapping existing talent for names of job candidates makes sense.
“Current employees probably have other people in their network with the same values and skills [an employer] already knows and values,” she said.
Charis Lindrooth, co-owner of Red Earth Farm in Kempton, said while advertising for workers on Facebook is new to her family’s sustainable farming operation, most of her seasonal hires come from word-of-mouth, referred by people she employs.
“We advertise in the newspaper and get tons of applicants, but most aren’t suited for the work, and we’ve not made one hire from Facebook yet,” Lindrooth said.
From one employee during the winter months to as many as 20 during the prime growing season extending from July through August, some universal qualities stand out for Lindrooth.
“Honesty, loyalty, reliability, showing up for work and being suited to the work are the biggest [hiring qualities] we look for,” she said.
From farm labor to executive staffing, taking the time to find the best candidate means not having to repeat the process when a new hire doesn’t work out.
“Many of our clients face a similar challenge – attracting top-notch talent. Whether they are a software company looking for in-demand developers or a professional services firm looking for the best to join their team,” said Andrew Stanten, president of Altitude Marketing in Emmaus.
LinkedIn, job boards and social media such as Facebook have become a place not just for job seekers to look for work but as a corporate and business cultural showcase, providing a window for prospective applicants, he said.
Dr. Michelle McCarroll said she uses networking, word-of-mouth recommendations and taps trade schools to hire office staff. She owns and operates That Foot Doctor LLC, a private podiatry practice in Salisbury Township.
After candidates are in the pool, McCarroll screens resumes by looking at such basic skills as good grammar, punctuation and spelling, she said. Lots of errors are red flags.
“If there are multiple spelling or grammatical errors, I don’t even consider an interview,” McCarroll said.
If an applicant’s resume passes muster, McCarroll will consider his or her employment history to decide if there will be a short phone-interview.
Then, the basics come back into play.
“If a potential applicant speaks properly and maturely” during a phone interview, an in-person interview is the next step, McCarroll said.
Consider a checklist to guide questions during interviews and to help sound out the vacancy ahead of reviewing resumes or interviewing candidates.
“I have an ’employee hiring worksheet’ that has questions an applicant should be able to answer,” McCarroll said.
Among her questions are how do qualifications and skills match up with the available position, contributions made at previous jobs and the candidate’s short- and long-term career goals.
Tom Merrick, president of Tom’s Help Desk in Milford Township, Bucks County, said he rarely uses telephone interviews to screen potential candidates because body language, confidence and presentation are important factors in his hiring practices.
“How they answer questions – with their body language – can tell us a lot,” Merrick said.
Watson said the No. 1 hurdle to hiring well is the ability to hone in on a firm’s existing needs, not a knee-jerk filling of an historical position – one that hasn’t kept pace with the day-to-day workload.
The most successful match-ups mean a candidate would need to meet immediate job requirements, and could evolve over time as the job’s demands change.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – When we send kids off to college, many times we say they need to “find themselves” but researchers and authors say some of us spend a lifetime trying to find out who we really are. It’s called the search for our authentic selves. It sounds easy enough right? We know who we are don’t we? But some researchers say our true selves can sometimes get buried under the to do lists and the different roles we play in our busy lives and we have to really dial in. We asked Lehigh Valley women for their reflections in our Wisdom Wednesday segment.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Can you change your life by changing your thoughts? Study after study says you absolutely can if you use positive thinking and while most of the women we spoke with agree, they also say negative thoughts can have a big influence on how we feel and our levels of success.
